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The “Comparative Analysis of Selected National AIDS Investment Cases from Asia-Pacific Region” aims to review and analyse existing national AIDS investment cases and document country experiences in developing them to effectively address the AIDS epidemic beyond 2015.

Indonesia has enjoyed solid economic growth since 2010, supported (until recently) by strong exports of primary commodities, in particular fuels and minerals. In contrast with the commodities sector, the manufacturing sector has lost competitiveness and the country has struggled to nurture broad-based industrialization, including through integration into international production networks.

Despite the widely reported phenomenal growth in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in the Asia-Pacific region, a new study by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), has found that broadband capabilities and access are highly concentrated in East and North-East Asia.

Firms face difference obstacles for their development. This paper investigates which obstacle is the largest to firms’ productivity using micro-level data for the Asia and Pacific region. Access to finance shows the most robust result in our investigation, being stronger for SMEs. Removing SMEs’ credit constraints seem to be a powerful tool to promote economic growth in the region, particularly in the manufacturing sector.

During the last three and half decades, China has achieved unprecedented economic growth, with the average annual GDP growth rate being 9.3% for 1978 to 2014. At that rate, real GDP doubles every seven years. China’s real per capita GDP has risen from only 5.5% of the U.S. level in 1978 to about 25% in 2014. In 2014 the per capita GDP has reached about $7584 US dollars (current price, World Development Indicators), or $12608 international dollar (2011-year PPP constant price, World Development Indicators), which is about 31% of the level of high income OECD countries.

Most of the developing countries are confronted with scarcity of natural and financial resources and, therefore, rapid economic growth using up the resource endowment of the economy comes at the expense of the future growth and poses a number of challenges for the economy.

This paper is motivated by the need to identify potential links between productivity in the rural and agriculture sector in The A-P with a view to proposing policies and strategies on how strengthening productivity in the rural and agriculture sector will contribute to the realization of SDGs. In order to identify broad regional trends, the paper analyses the circumstances of 23 countries of the ESCAP region , but policy discussions are limited to a selected few from among the 23 countries.

As governments transition towards e-government in Asia and the Pacific, there is growing acknowledgement of the role that e-government could play to harness ICTs for women’s empowerment and gender equality. However, much of e-government policy and implementation still do not take into account the differentiated access to, and impact of, technology for men and women.

Digitalisation has enabled the emergence of low value consignments trade and has established a platform for SMEs in developing countries to participate in global trade. However, with companies involved in low value consignments trade being more sensitive to trade costs, and e-commerce particularly hinging on efficient delivery, transportation and payment systems, trade costs entailing high fixed cost components and lacking infrastructure can easily make trade uneconomic.

Older persons, particularly the oldest-old, are the fastest growing population segment in India and many of them require or will require long-term care in the future. The paper discusses policies on population ageing in India, such as the National Policy on Older Persons and the National Programme for Health Care for the Elderly. It further discusses the health status of older persons in India and projects future care needs.